Okay, so have gotten many reviews asking how Monster High fits into this whole mess, as well as who I'm going to pair Ben with. Well now, I'm gonna set the record straight: I'm not telling. Why would I give these away at the very beginning? And I'm going to give Ben at least a few more chapters to stir up mischief before his identity is revealed to the school.
I will however, drop a small hint on this story, just to keep you entertained: someone will finally redeem themselves. If you can guess, don't tell anyone! I repeat, don't tell anyone!
"Oh my ghoul!" Draculaura suddenly cried. Everyone turned in their seats to look at the small, pink vampire, who clutched her icoffin with white knuckles. "What? What's so important?" Cleo asked with a slightly miffed tone in her voice. She was the one that got all the important texts first, while her friends got it second, and then everyone else got it third. It must be in that order. Must.
"Robecca Steam's gonna jump the school!" Draculaura squealed with excitement. Everyone at the table burst into a roar of excitement, everyone talking over one another, leaving Ripjaws completely confused as to what was going on.
"She's gonna do it? Dude, that is sick!" Clawd exclaimed as he high fived Deuce.
"Is she crazy? Last time she tried that, she crashed right into the belfry!" Clawdeen yelled.
"I know!" Draculaura cried.
"RRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW-RRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOWWWWWRR!" Ripjaws roared, blowing everyone's hair/snakes/fur/bandages back, silencing them all.
"Thank you," said Ripjaws, clearing his throat. "Now then, can someone kindly explain to me who this Robecca girl is, and why she's trying to jump over the school? Again?"
Everyone acted sheepish, as they realized Ripjaws had no idea what they were talking about, or why they were so excited. "Robecca's a friend of mine," Frankie began. "She was created by a mad scientist that was a friend of my grandfather's."
"Dr. Frankenstein, right?"
Frankie nodded. "She's a robot that goes to Monster High with the rest of us, and she's kind of a dare devil in her spare time. She's been trying to jump the school for the past year or so, and last time she tried, she missed." Clawdeen explained. "Spent two months stuck in the workshop getting repaired, poor thing. And they still couldn't fix that problem she has with time."
"What problem?" Ripjaws asked.
"She's had this problem with some sort of inner clock. It's completely busted, so she's pretty much always late for everything. Good thing she has a permanent pass from Headmistress Bloodgood." Frankie explained.
Ripjaws nodding, following along with intent. "Cool. So when does she jump?
Everyone turned to Draculaura, who was busy scrolling on her icoffin screen. "Uh, tomorrow at lunch time." she said.
"I hope that gives me enough time to finish the homework Mr. Hack gave me." Lagoona said with nervousness in her voice. "Tomorrow we start . . . . dissection." she shuddered, hugging Gil tightly"Is she squeamish?" Ripjaws asked. Gil shook his head. "Every time Mr. Hack has us do a dissection unit, he has us cut open little frogs. Lagoona and I are practically related to them. It's like cutting open our parents!" Ripjaws nodded in understanding. "I see. Maybe I can help."
"How?" Lagoona sniffed.
"Lets just say I know a guy," Ripjaws said mischievously, glancing down at the Omnitrix.
"These are frogs?" Ripjaws asked.
"Unfortunately yes," Lagoona answered as she scratched hers under the chin. The small amphibians looked like normal frogs at first glance, but these little guys had an extra eye between their normal two, though that was pretty much the only thing that was different. "These lil' cuties are gonna be cut open wide, if yer friend doesn't show up soon." Mr. Hack was distracted, lecturing on the many ways to cut open your frog and rip out its organs while it was still alive (that's Mad Science for ya).
"I need you to distract Mr. Hack while I transform." he hissed to Lagoona so no one else could hear them. As of late, Lagoona was the only ghoul he trusted to so far with his secret. Lagoona nodded and raised her webbed hand to catch Mr. Hacks attention while Ripjaws slowly slid down in his seat. "Mr. Hack? Is there any way to remove the frogs brain while it's still alive?" Lagoona asked, the question like acid in her throat as Ripjaws slunk toward the door. He quietly slipped it open and clipped it shut, unaware that someone had seen him leave, unnoticed by Mr. Hack.
"Well, Ms. Blue! Finally glad that yer takin' a likin' to Mad Science!" Mr. Hack said with enthusiasm. "To answer yer question, there are numerous ways to remove the brain and keep the frog alive for a few minutes. My personal favorite is-
CRASH!
"Hey! Nobody moves!" a deep, Boston accented voice yelled. Mr. Hack and the rest of the student body looked up in surprise to see a large frog-like creature crouching amongst shards of broken glass in front of a shattered window. The finger drew up to his full height, towering over Mr. Hack, drawing a small squeak of fright from him. The being was dressed in a tight black body suit with a green stripe down the middle. Thick, green cuffs sat around his wrists and ankles, a pair of fingerless gloves on his two fingered hand and thumb. The frog man had a well defined jawline and wore a pair of sunglasses that covered his eyes as his mouth turned into a frown.
"Yous betta let my froggy brethren go, before I beats ya ta pieces!" he ordered. Mr. Hack continued to stare up at the being as his hand reached around on his table for a weapon. As his thick finger curled around the handle of an ax, the being opened its mouth, a long tongue whipping out and smacking his hand away from the ax. "Let my froggy amigos go now, so says I, Bullfrag!" the frog man yelled as he grabbed Mr. Hack by the wrist and lifted him off the ground with ease, bring him up to eye level. "Have you any objections?" he growled. Mr. Hack shook his head, and Bullfrag promptly threw him into a supply closet door without hesitation. He turned to the student body, who were are crouched down in their seats as Lagoona smiled. "Class dismissed." he smiled before giving a shrill whistle. Every frog in the room immediately perked up and hopped to Bullfrag's feet. The Incursean scooped up as many frogs as he walked back over to the broken window.
"Laters!" he said to the students. Bullfrag leaped out the window, out of sight as the students followed with their eyes. Minutes passed before the classroom erupted into chaos. Monsters rushed to the door as they talked with their fellow class mates, while a few rushed to the window to look after Bullfrag, who had quickly vanished. Soon the classroom was empty of the student body, the only remaining people being Lagoona and Ghoulia, who was sweeping up the glass shards. Mr. Hack remained unconcious in his supply closet.
"What'd I miss?" Ripjaws asked as he entered the room. Lagoona smiled and pulled him into a hug, which he returned awkardly. "Yer the best, mate!" he exclaimed. "No problem. Kind of fun to get back at Hack for what happened yesterday." Ripjaws smiled.
"Eeeeeeee-hhhhhhhhh?" Ghoulia moaned as he limped over to the two sea creatures. "Aaa-eeee-aahh." Ripjaws had no idea what she was saying, but he knew it couldn't have been good. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but what did she just say?" he asked. Lagoona looked nervously between her two friends, Ghoulia with a look of triumph on her face. "Ghoulia, uh, said she knows your secret. She wants you to change back. Now." Lagoona translated. "The jig's up." Ripjaws blinked, processing what he had just been told. He sighed and slapped the Omnitrix on his belt, engulfed in a flash of green light.
Seconds later, he was his normal human self. Lagoona was only a few inches taller than he was, but he was a giant compared to Ghoulia. Whether this was due to her height or her slouching habit was up to debate. "Well, here I am. Go ahead, scream." Ben sighed. Another monster who knew his secret. How long would it be before the entire school knew about him?
"Aaaaaaah?" Ghoulia moaned once more, raising an eyebrow. Clearly this was not what she was expecting. "You're a Normie?" Lagoona translated. Ben sighed. "Yep. One Normie, all kinds of monster." Before Ben could stop her, Ghoulia lunged forward and latched onto Ben's left wrist. "Gah! Is she trying to eat me!?" Ben cried as he tried to pull Ghoulia off, who looked seriously offended.
Lagoona laughed. "Nah, zombies don't like human flesh. That's just a myth. Ghoulia prefers fast food."
"Then why is she not letting go?" Ben asked.
"I think she's interested in that Omnitrix of yours, mate."
"What!? What are you doing!?" Ben yelled as Ghoulia examined the watch like device on his wrist. Her pale fingers taped the watch face and activated it, covering Ghoulia's face in bright green light. She cycled through the hologram list in awe, marveling at the many transformations Ben had in his watch. Curiously, she tapped on one of the images, and gently pressed down on the activation as Ben warned her not to do it. "No! Don't-
FOOM!
Too late. A green encased him, and the changes began as the alien DNA coursed throughout his veins.
His skin went from being soft and warm to hot and hard as concrete. Rocky bumps formed on his wrists and shins. His shoulders became broad and massive, so large that he had no neck at all; his face face was stuck right in the middle. His mouth became wider and almost forever stuck in a toothy grin. His fingers swelled in size, and Ben could feel a slight tingling sensation at the tips. He felt a strange feeling as his guts all move upward into his chest as a swirling, hot magma center filled their space. His toes melted into one smooth, rounded foot. A pair of black shorts with green stripes appeared on him as the Omnitrix suddenly appeared on his forehead, completing the transformation.
"Gravattack?" Ben sputtered as he saw himself in the reflection of the broken window shards. "Great! How am I supposed to blend in!?" Before Lagoona could answer, Ghoulia curiously tapped the Omnitrix on Gravattack's forehead, having to jump a little just to reach it. Ben cried out in surprise as he was enveloped in another flash of green light. For a brief moment he turned back to his human self as the features of the Galilean were sucked back into his body.
The second transformation began after the briefest of seconds, starting with his skin hardening. It wasn't like before, when his skin became hard as rock, but it seemed tougher than that, more stable. It became cold to the touch the metal plating raced to cover his arms and transform his fingers into metallic fingers. He felt all of his organs simply vanish, as if they had never been there before. For a split second, Ben thought he was going to die, until he felt something else take their place. Things that were rounded and notched around the ends as they began to steadily turn against each other, making a steady ticking sound. The metal plating soon covered his whole body as he felt his face become more square like. A thick protrusion sprouted from his head as the Omnitrix symbol appeared on a glass window that showed his insides turning against each other.
"Clockwork!" Ben cried out in a thick German accent. "Well, at least I'll blend in." he sighed. Ghoulia began to reach for the Omnitrix symbol on Clockwork's chest plate, attempting to watch another transformation sequence, but Ben saw it coming. He quickly raised his arms as Ghoulia reached for him, and felt something inside him click. His windup key-like protrusion slowly rotated counter clockwise, and a green light burst outward from his see-through chest plate. Immediately, everything slowed down around him, everything from Lagoona gasping and blinking in shock to Ghoulia slowly reaching for the Omntrix symbol. She was incredibly slow, even by zombie standards. Clockwork simply walked out of the way and to the other side of the room, his metal feet clunking against the floor.
Now, to anyone who was watching, they would have seen him moving at light speed, faster than their eye could blink. One moment, he was standing next to Ghoulia and Lagoona, the next he was on the opposite side of the room. Ben concentrated, and his key-like protrusion spun clockwise at a fast pace, bringing time back to its normal flow. "Ahhhhhhhhh!" Ghoulia yelled in surprise. Lagoona was jerking her head back and forth between the spot where Clockwork had been, and where he was now, almost unable to comprehend what had just happened. "As Clockwork, I have absolute control over time. I can speed it up or slow it down however I want." Ben explained to the two ghouls.
"Ehhhhhh-aaaaaaahhh." Ghoulia groaned. Lagoona quickly translated for Ben, who was beginning to pick up on some Zombie. Not enough to completely understand Ghoulia, but enough to pick bits and pieces of what she was saying. "She wants to know who else you've been posing as." Lagoona said.
"Well, I've been Frankenstrike, Ripjaws, and Bullfrag, the guy that just smashed through the windows and rescued the frogs. FYI, it was Lagoona's idea." Ben said quickly. Lagoona frowned, but quickly smiled at the thought of her froggy friends not getting dissected.
"Hey, mate. Do you know what time it is?" Lagoona joked. Ben was not amused.
"I prefer you do not make time jokes around me. For some reason it feels insulting." he stated as he crossed his arms over his chest and huffed. "Anyway, it's currently 12:13. As Clockwork, I also always know what time it is without even having to look at a clock."
"Say, isn't Robecca gonna jump the school at lunch?" Lagoona asked. Ben nodded his head, which was more like swiveling it from side to side. "That's in 1 minute and 23 seconds. We better hurry."
"So, where is this Robecca girl again?" Clockwork asked Lagoona. Ghoulia sat on top of Clockwork's shoulders, too short to see over the crowd. Ben had been a little uncomfortable with having someone who had randomly made change aliens on him, but given in after seeing the disappointed look on Ghoulia's pale face. Ghoulia scanned the crowd, her legs wrapped around Clockwork's short neck and her arms resting on his windup key protrusion. "Ehh!" she cried, and pointed off toward the left side of the school courtyard. Every monster in the school had come out to the courtyard, facing the school to see two wooden ramps that had obviously been hastily constructed sitting on either side of the tallest belfry. On the left ramp, a girl with copper skin dotted with rivets, bolts, and patches was slowly stretching, getting the kinks out of her machinery. Her blue and black girl flapped in the breeze as jets of smoke and flame puffed out of the bottoms of her feet. Her cage-like skirt that wrapped around her black skirt moved in the breeze as the antennae attached to her goggles twirled and spun.
"Ladies and gentlemen, monsters of all species!" Headmistress Bloodgood's voice rang out over the loudspeakers. The excited crowd quickly quieted down as the Headmistress began a short speech. "Today, Robecca Steam will attempt to jump Monster High once more! Please no flash photography, as it could seriously injure our student like last time." the woman said as several monsters turned to glare at a small goblin who smiled sheepishly. "Now, without further delay, let the jumping commonsense!" The student body erupted into cheers as Robecca waved to the crowd and backed up and off the ramp, going so far back she eventually pressed against the walls surrounding the school. She sucked in a deep breath and snapped her goggles over her eyes. She felt the oil and fuel flow through her circuitry as she gave her rocket boots an experimental puff. Everything had been accounted for to avoid another accident like last time. Everything from the ramp angle and crowd to what brand of fuel she used. It all mattered. She took a breath and shot forward, a cloud smoke racing behind her as she shot up the ramp and into the sky, the wind blowing against her face as she soared through the air.
Below, the crowd was ecstatic, erupting into applause and cheers as Robecca flew through the air. The roar of crowd became even louder as she just made it over the top spire of the school's belfry and came down from the other side. Up in the air, Robecca was practically panicking despite the rousing cheer from her fellow monsters. She had calibrated for everything she could think. Absolutely every was in place. So why was suddenly feeling tired? She felt as if her energy was slowly diminishing as she fell toward the ramp. The usual thrust of her rocket boots felt weaker until they gave a final cough and died. "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Robecca screamed at the top of her lungs as she fell toward the ramp. Without any rocket fuel in her boots, she couldn't cushion her fall as she landed. She could kill herself!
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed again. "No!" Clockwork yelled, pushing his way through the student body and leaving a worried Lagoona behind. Ghoulia hung on tight as the metallic being raced toward the landing ramp and skidded to a stop as Robecca fell just above them. Barely even thinking, he rose his arms and commanded the time stream to slow, like a river being dammed up. The affect was immediate as the green ray washed over everyone, making their movements incredibly slow. Robecca's eyes widened (slowly) as her fallen was slowed to a lazy pace. She could hardly move her limbs as her mind raced to process what was happening. She glanced below her to see Ghoulia on top of a bronze, robotic creature with his arms spread wide as he danced around at lightning speed to catch her, faster than her circuits and gears could process.
Eventually she came within arm reach of the creature who raised an arm up and latched both of his arms onto her hips. She suddenly felt as if she was rushing a hundred miles an hour as the giant mechanical beast cradled her in his arms. She was breathing heavily now, having just escaped a life threatening moment as the key-like protrusion on the monster's head spun clockwise quickly, returning the time stream to its normal flow. The roar of the crowd now was earth shattering as hundreds of monsters took out their iCoffins to snap pictures of the three, Ghoulia on Clockwork's head as Robecca sat in his strong arms.
"You, okay?" Clockwork asked Robecca. The metallic girl looked up into his blank green eyes and smiled as a burst of steam escaped from her ears. "Y-yes, I'm fine. Simply splendid." she said in a shaky voice. "Would you like me to put you down?" Clockwork asked.
"No!" Robecca cried, causing Clockwork to pause. "No. No. I'm still a little shaky." she said as her copper face turned red. "Can you take me to the Creepateria? I think I'll be able to manage just fine when I've had something to eat." she said to cover her trail. Clockwork nodded and walked down off the ramp and toward the doors as the crowd followed them inside.
And there's the new chapter! Looks like Frankie isn't the only who likes Ben!
Now then, I have a request for all you readers and fans of my stories; please do not comment about my other stories on a different story. One example by a reader (who shall not be named) did so, and I'm not entirely happy about it. Also, I have been frequently getting messages from said reader and others about posting more chapters faster.
As school has begun for me, I will have less and less time to update stories. You must be patient. I will guarantee however, that I will try to get a new chapter up on all my current stories once a month, maybe more around the holidays. So, please be patient, and have a nice day!
¡Hasta luego!